Oh, and hey. My job switches over to technical writing next week/month. And it comes with a free raise! Still temp, though.

Writing writing writing, yay
clickety-clack of keyboard keys
A full-time writer I
No need for speelcheck you can see

Calloo, callay! Oh, frabjous day!

That is so cool. I'm tempted to give it a whirl myself. Because of the deadline though, if I cogitate something I don't have time to execute, I'll let you know.

Help yourself to this (for what it's worth). The difference is between becoming and being. (Put the Heidegger down, step away from that Merleau Ponty). I'm using the male pronoun, feel free to change that or anything else.

A regular guy's readout gives him the confidence to become a superhero. But you don't just get to be a superhero (yeah, like I was so going to be a superhero, but I was busy that weekend). He has to do something quite "heroic" in order to become a superhero and his futuristic insight gives him the way that this will happen. This requires quite a challenge, but he is able to get through it because he knows he will die of something else, so it isn't really a challenge. (The reader at this stage ought not to know what the insight is, but should be aware that the "challenge" isn't really a threat).

Our "hero" becomes a superhero. The special powers though, require something that takes time. (Not just ducking into a phone box or whatever). Our guy can't just wave a wand and become "super".

One day he finds himself in a position where he can help save someone's life (and the someone should be someone whom we would like to see saved). Alas, he doesn't have time to do his superhero thing, so he has to decide whether to try as his "alter ego" i.e. his actual self, or take the time out to get his underpants on the outside.

Being a top bloke, he decides to just jump to it and save the person.

He, of course, dies in the act of saving the (kiddie, bunnies, puppies, whatever). And he does so in a way that was exactly forecast by the initial readout.

There is a strong hint that he was aware of that when he made the decision.

Fourex, thanks. Brisbane meet-up.

Of course it would be even better if what he had to jump into to save the (world/puppies) was (through some time distortion thing) his own "yeah I can do this because I die some other way" initiation into the whole superhero world in the first place.

This has been done before though, right?

GOOD LUCK! Or "break a leg," if you prefer or are superstitious about "Good l**k." ;-)

GD, that's kind of where I was going; "heading into inevitable death for the sake of the innocent".

I also thought of a guy whose readout just says: "SAY NO TO DRUGS" who ends up getting smushed by a billboard saying exactly that, but they said they already had enough gimmicky ironic plot twist stories.

Might be cool to have someone whose is blank. How awkward that is for them at social gatherings when people are comparing their readouts and trying to guess at how they'll die. Wondering if they're immortal, or what. Feeling less than human because they don't fit in?

I had an idea for this about a guy working for a Celebrity PR firm who is given the job of "managing" the predictions for the celebs the firm has under contract. He ends up not just deciding whether to make a certain person's prediction public (and how to 'spin' the news) but also whether to inform the person himself, and ends up managing the lives of less-than-stable stars, to his own detriment. In concept, the end should involve the PR guy's own death, but that's where I lose focus. It also seems like it could turn into a rather long short story.

You may not use it without contacting me directly and telling me how you would end it; then I might give you permission.

This post is © the poster, big deal.

That sounds awesome, wendell. I hope you take the time to write it.